Putting on Appearances

This academic study looks past the surface of American advertising to the cultural meanings packed into it. Barthel concentrates on beauty products marketed to women and shows how ads reinforce familiar ideas about masculinity and femininity. She argues that advertising does more than sell products: it builds a particular kind of relationship between the company and the consumer.

The book reads these ads through psychological, sociological and cultural lenses. Few of them are openly sexual. Instead they tell stories of seduction, deception and passion, presenting these as routes to a stronger sense of self. Barthel also examines the voices that speak to the reader, such as the expert scientist, the nurturing mother and the celebrity who passes along insider tips. Beauty rituals are framed as meaningful moments, and diet advertising draws on religious images of guilt and redemption.

Her central claim is that appearance is never a purely private matter. The social conditions people live under are shaped by the appearances they choose to create, and advertising helps guide those choices. The book is part of the Women in the Political Economy series, edited by Ronnie J. Steinberg.